James 1.19-21.
God is stable.
And, as is appropriate for God’s followers, we shouldn’t be that way either. Ordinarily humans are creatures of extremes. Our emotions tend to be wild, crazy, out of control… or totally repressed. If we’re the overemotional sort, we point to the emotionless sort as totally wrong, and vice-versa. The repressed person objects to emotions as wildly inappropriate, and emotional people as possible candidates for heavy medication. The out-of-control person objects to emotionless people as unhealthy and stunted, and at some point they’re gonna snap and need some of that heavy medication themselves.
But the fruit of the Spirit is prahýtis/“gentility,” or
But of course, Christians pretend our rage is righteous anger, or even that it’s all God’s idea. We even try to make it sound like fruit. James objected to the idea in this passage:
James 1.19-21 KWL - 19 Know this, my beloved fellow Christians: Be quick to listen, everybody. Slow to speak, slow to anger.
- 20 Men’s anger doesn’t empower God’s rightness.
- 21 So gently get rid of every filthy thing, every evil advantage.
- Pick up the message which is implanted with the power to save your souls.